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US drops in worldwide broadband subscriptions rankings

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development website, broadband statistics highlights for June 2007:

* Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Korea, Norway and Iceland lead the OECD in broadband penetration, each with over 29 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

* The strongest per-capita subscriber growth over the year was in Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Norway, Denmark and Luxembourg. Each country added more than 5 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year.

* Operators in several countries continue upgrading subscriber lines to fibre. Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and Fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) subscriptions/connections account for 36% of all broadband subscriptions in Japan, and 31% in Korea.

* The United States is the largest broadband market in the OECD with 66.2 million subscribers. US broadband subscribers now represent 30% of all broadband connections in the OECD.

In the past seven years, the U.S. has dropped from fourth to 15th among 30 developed nations in the percentage of households that subscribe to broadband Internet…

(Maybe it shouldn’t, but dropping to 15th bothers me. It seems to me that those with some insight have been stating that we are about to be, and/or have been, passed by other countries in regards to science/math/innovation/etcetera.)

(After posting the above, I read…)

China has caught up with the U.S. with both countries counting 221 million Internet users…the US market penetration has leveled off…the online population in China will dwarf that in the US by three- or four-fold. India should eventually leaprog China to become the biggest online market on the planet…India has 18 all-news channels of its own, and boasts of the biggest English-language newspaper in the world…as literacy increases in India, newspaper circulation is growing at double-digit rates…

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Reliability Monitor (in Vista)

When you’re having problems with a computer, or would like to investigate performance issues, consider using the Windows Vista Reliability Monitor…

From the Run line, execute “perfmon.msc”. Under Monitoring Tools, click “Reliability Monitor”.

Note: it collects 24 hours of data before it calculates the System Stability Index, or generates the System Stability Report.

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Windows Vista Performance and Reliability Monitoring Step-by-Step Guide

(To summarize…)

The Reliability and Performance Monitor is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that combines: Performance Logs and Alerts, Server Performance Advisor, and a System Monitor.

It measures how quickly a computer completes application and system tasks. Overall system performance might be limited by the access speed of the physical hard disks, the amount of memory available to all running processes, the top speed of the processor, or the maximum throughput of the network interfaces.

It:
records failures (including memory, hard disk, application, and operating system failures)…
key events (including the installation of new applications and operating system updates)…
displays a timeline of changes in both the system and reliability…
and can identify how to get the system back to optimal reliability when it does not behave as expected.

The Resource View screen provides a real-time graphical overview of CPU, disk, network, and memory usage. You can identify which processes are using which resources…

To start Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor
1. Click Start, right-click Computer, and click Manage.
2. In the Microsoft Management Console navigation tree, click Reliability and Performance.

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CDs that don’t play

A CD was created with a blank CD-R disc I had provided, and did not function in a player.

The person who was attempting to play the CD believes: “a ‘CD-R’ should always play in a ‘CD-R’ player”. I was not successful in attempting to explain that, as in a lot of situations, items deemed to be of high-quality provide consistent results…

The disc I provided (for free) was the least expensive one available at the store when I purchased it. I purchased it based on cost, not quality.

The player is not, in my opinion, a high-quality unit…it’s a “cheapie”: Living Solutions (Atico International USA, Inc.) 60-Second CD Player with Radio (model #CD168).

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Problems are…
“…more likely to occur with car CD players and portable CD players that have less robust error-correcting abilities, older CD players, and less expensive CD players of any age…Certain brands of CD-R may cause problems for a particular CD player because of differences in dye formulations among CD-R brands…”

Glass-mastered CDs appear to be the better quality types…
“…CD-Rs, regardless of the manufacturer or method of duplication, are more likely than their glass-mastered counterparts to have compatibility problems with certain CD players, resulting in skipping, clicks, pops, or complete stops…”

“Duplicator manufacturers typically test and recommend only certain brands of blank CD-Rs for use in their machines…

http://www.vochor.com/cd_playability.html

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“The Red Book audio CD specification provides for audio discs that store up to 74 minutes of sound…The Yellow Book spec for CD-ROM provides for data CDs that hold about 650 megabytes of data.

“…audio CD-Rs can be made to hold up to 80 minutes of music, and data CD-Rs up to 700 megabytes of data.

“…there’s a serious problem with such CD-Rs: they violate the standards specification in such a way that such discs won’t work on some players or drives…

“For maximum compatibility, you’re better off sticking to 74 minute, 650 megabyte CD-R media…

http://www.oggfrog.com/howto/cds-wont-play/

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Contemplating (Data) Mortality

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“You get what you pay for…”

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QuakeCon

(I’m not a “gamer”, but events like this make me wish I were…I DO want to go…)

Registration has been open for this “gaming festival and party” that’s to be held July 31 – August 3 in Dallas (at the Hilton Anatole Hotel).

There will be a BYOC (Bring-Your-Own-Computer) LAN party. When I last checked the website, three-thousand had registered. I wonder if there is a limit…

It’s free, but READ THE FAQ.

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